Mark Comerford made a really good point last weekend when he was talking about differentiating between neck and shoulder-related upper extremity pain. In many cases, the symptoms are very similar. For instance, both labral problems and cervical spine impingement can cause numbness into the lower arm. And, both rotator cuff tendinopathies and tears and cervical spine issues can refer pain to the medial border of the scapula.

Comerford noted (and it holds true in everyone that I’ve seen) that when you have something from the cervical spine (neck), weakness is greater than pain. Conversely, if it’s a problem of shoulder origin, there is generally more pain than weakness. Simple, but I’ve never heard of anyone actually put it out there. Smart dude.

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